Author: William Penn
Date: 23:11:09 10/23/01
Go up one level in this thread
John Merlino's Chessmaster Questionaire...
1) Which ratings ranges of personalities do you use or play against?
--> I don't use any of the predefined personalities, only my own defined
personality which is hopefully of maximum strength. I use it for analysis in
infinite mode (only), but not very often anymore because several other chess
engines are now significantly stronger than CM. I never play against
Chessmaster. It is only an analysis tool, and I only use the Gameroom. I also
access the database statistics (via Chess Coach, Database Findings) which is
convenient for a quick idea of the possibilities in an opening (although not
particularly accurate, it misses transpositions, etc).
2) Do you play Rated Games in the Tournament Room?
--> No. Never have, never will!
3) Do you create tournaments in the Tournament Room? If so, do you include human
users (like yourself) in these tournaments?
--> No.
4) Do you think there should be more "human" personalities, less "human"
personalities, or do you think the number of these personalities is just right?
--> I don't use any of the predefined personalities. I only use my own
defined personality. But as a general criticism, I think there are far too many
personalities.
5) Do you wish that you were able to create larger tournaments (i.e. more than 8
players in a round-robin tournament, or more than 32 players in a Swiss
tournament)? If so, how many would you like to include in these types of
tournaments?
--> No.
6) Have you ever gone to the Library?
--> No.
7) Have you ever used the Opening Book Editor? If so, have you ever wished that
you could create books with more than 64K moves in them?
--> No.
8) Do you play chess online? If so, have you ever used Chessmaster (any version)
to play chess online?
--> No, no, and I never will.
9) Do you own Chessbase (any version)?
--> No. I use the free online chess databases at ChessLab and ChessBase
Online. I use 3x5 cards (real paper & ink) for my personal database system. They
work fine and don't require electricity. I hate the limitations of a computer
monitor, which is always just one tiny & limited little window into whatever you
want to see. The invention of multiple windows designs does not help very much.
10) Have you ever gone to the Classroom? If so, what portions of the curriculum
have you COMPLETED? (to the best of your recollection -- please don't bother to
take the time to look unless you really want to.... ;-)
--> No, and none.
11) Have you ever imported an XBoard compatible engine into Chessmaster? If so,
what did you think of the import process and the overall XBoard support?
--> No. What's XBoard? Actually you needn't answer, because I'm sure that I
would have no interest in it. I prefer the ChessBase/Fritz GUI, and only collect
those engines which are available for and compatible with it.
12) Do you wish that there were more or less chess sets and boards to choose
from?
--> Perhaps more, but 2D only, and only of high legibility. I use the
customize board option, but I wouldn't have to customize a board if a legible
one were provided already! Chess is a 2-D game, not a 3-D game, so only one
really good and highly legible 2-D chessboard is needed.
13) Have you ever changed the "wallpaper" for any room?
--> No. What's that?
14) What setting do you use for piece movement sounds?
--> Thematic Sounds. I like some sounds. But please kill the stupid movie by
Josh Waitzkin, etc. Also kill all of the DirectX and Run Time (or whatever it's
called) related stuff. It royally screws up computer systems.
15) Does it bother you that Chessmaster 8000 requires the CD at all times? If
so, how much (on a scale of 1 to 5, where 5 is you are VERY bothered)?
--> Yes! 5,000+, EXTREMELY BOTHERED! It bothers me so much that I absolutely
will not buy any future version of Chessmaster that requires it. My system has a
CD-RW drive only, and it is not suitable for leaving the CD in the drive. There
is a long access delay before each spinup. Even if I had a regular CD drive (I
probably will, sometime in the future), I will not buy any software that
requires the CD to be in the drive.
16) Have you ever created a personality?
--> Yes. And that's the only way I use CM.
17) Do you think there are too many personality variables, not enough variables,
or just the right amount of variables?
--> I don't know. I use what is available.
18) If you think there should be more personality variables, what would you
suggest?
--> I don't know.
19) If you owned Chessmaster 6000/5500/5000, what do you think of the interface
change for Chessmaster 7000/8000 (the "room metaphor")?
--> It sucks! The multirooms and other designs for kids is not for serious
chess players. Also it should not be possible to have more than one engine
running simultaneously to slow down analysis, a very serious bug in CM......
IMHO.
20) What resolution do you use on your monitor?
--> 1024x768 (16 bit) with Large Fonts, 125% of standard size. Occasionally
I switch to 640x480 or 800x600 to play some of the older games.
21) What windows do you REGULARLY have open in the Game Room?
--> Game Status, Chess Coach (Database Findings only), Visual Thinking,
Thinking Lines, and a custom 2-D chessboard which I created.
22) Do you think there are too many "Windows" available in the Game Room?
--> No. How could there be too many windows available? There is seldom a
problem with having too many options, only too few! For example the displayed
depth of current analysis in progress in the Thinking Lines window should be
deeper (at least several ply), like in the pre-CM7k versions.
23) What chess set/board combination do you prefer to use?
--> I only use one design, a custom 2-D board with the Black and White
Figurine pieces, which is the only legible possibility available in CM! All of
the 3-D junk is useless, pretty but impractical.
24) Do you wish that there were larger chess sets/boards included in the game?
How about smaller chess sets/boards?
--> It might be useful if the Black and White Figurine pieces were available
in several more sizes, or as a customizable size, and perhaps in different
colors. Also there was more ability to customize the chessboard colors,
brightness, hue, etc. in CM6k, which was removed in CM7k+ but should be
returned.
25) If you have an official chess rating, what is it? If you do NOT have an
official chess rating but play a lot of chess, what do you estimate your rating
to be?
--> 2292 (correspondence chess)
WP
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